The American Beagler Forum

Well, first of all, I had hoped we would not need to post this to the board, but there is a dog for sale at Beagles For Sale Online that people need to know about. We had hoped the ad would be off by now, but it is not. The ad is about a Branko bred dog named Speck (Hough’s Speckled Spitfire) from Louisiana.

Let me tell you the story about Speck. We bought Speck as a pup from a man in Ohio. He started young on his own in the wild and did really good. He was a beautiful dog with a loaded pedigree, had a beautiful voice and was making a great running dog until he got sick. He developed the red mange at about 9 months. The red mange (demodectic mange) has a genetic basis and indicates a poor immune system. The red mange was not localized but instead generalized and all over the body. It is something that can be treated but often in a serious case it keeps coming back. Also, since it's presence is an indication of an immune problem, they are also susceptible to getting sick from other things easily. We treated him twice for it with no luck on it going away. The first time we treated it he had started to look better. Not long after that though it came back. We treated him again but this time it didn't get any better. This affected him in several ways. The first way was by making him lose a lot of weight. His front legs were very hairy too. Running him caused him to be under stress, which made the mange worse. Each time we ran him we had to keep him up for about a week to get him to look half decent weight-wise and he would be lame in the foot as well. We planned on having him put down by the vet soon. It was a terrible decision for us because we liked him so much and he was showing so much promise and we had great plans for him.

Then a man, [name removed], contacted us about two dogs we had for sale at the time. He offered us half of the price we were asking for them because he said that times were hard and he couldn't afford to buy both for what we were asking. We would not sale our other dogs for half price but we mentioned Speck to him. We told him all about the red mange. We told him we would just give the dog to him but that it would need to be fixed in order to keep from passing on the poor genetics. He said that was fine and that he would treat him and get him fixed. He picked Speck up from us on July 1, 2006. He was a great running dog and we d to do it. The vet had also told us that getting him fixed might help with the recurrence of the mange but there were no guarantees. We now wish we had not offered Speck to him and we wish we had not given him Speck's registration papers.

We would never, never sell a dog like this or mislead anyone in anyway like this. A month after he got him from us we saw the dog listed on Beagles For Sale Online. He was asking 150.00 for him then. He had pictures of him and we could tell that Speck still had the mange. My wife called him and talked to him without telling him who she was and asked him questions. He lied to her by telling her that he wasn't even sure that the dog had mange and that it was gone now and that Speck didn't have it when he got him from the previous owners (us) and that he didn't know why the previous owners (us) had gotten rid of the dog. Unbelievable! I think he got wise to who she was and the ad was removed within just a few hours. Now he's at it again, but this time asking 250.00 for it. Again, unbelievable! You'll notice that the pictures are not close up but from quite a distance so you cannot see the dog very well.

Now we feel that our reputation may be at stake since Hough’s Speckled Spitfire bears our name and this man obviously has an honesty problem. We are worried that someone will buy him and then it might look bad on us if they don't know the whole story behind him. We don’t know what in the world he might tell them. You are welcome to share this information with anyone that might be interested in purchasing Speck. This dog should not be purchased for use in a breeding program. Yet, his pedigree, which my wife made and gave to him, is posted in the ad. This is very misleading. If anyone decides to share this post with someone else, we respectfully ask that you share it in its entirety, not leaving out any of the story.

By the way, we have a record of the emails he sent us and that we sent him to back up our story.

If anyone ever has any questions about any of our dogs please don't hesitate to ask. We are always glad to be of help to fellow beaglers. Also, if you haven't seen our website feel free to look. http://www.geocities.com/houghskennels

David and Jessica Hough

P.S. We have edited this post by removing the man's name because the ad at beagles for sale online has been removed.

Well Done!! Well Done!!
We need more responsible breeders in this Sport.
If more people were to come out about things like this then maybe Some of these Guys Would Stop doing it....
Thank You for your honesty and Bringing this out where it belongs....

What does an honest person look like....??

JHough (and wife)--good job--to you both!!

Magoo

i emailed this guy and ask if he had any closer pictures of him,,,,i also told him i think i looked at this male when the previous owner had him,,,,,,we will see what happens,,,,,,,,,

Ya know.........you dog peddlers gotta realize that once a dog is out of your hands, its gone! If the Houghs were really that concerned about their reputation as breeders/sellers in the first place they'd have never let the dog leave their possession. The only gripe anyone can possibly have is that the dog is misrepresented buy the knucklehead who is selling him now to the poor S.O.B. that buys the dog.

NorWester,

That's a bunch of crock. You don't even know us. We absolutely do care about our reputation. That's a fact. We ought to know. How do you propose to know. Do you make yourself out to be all-knowing God in order know our thoughts and motives better than we do! We're new in the beagling world. We might have been naive to think that this fellow would be honest but it was a MISTAKE on our part. If you read our post and have any intelligence or reasoning at all, then you would have read and understood that we REGRET the decision and you can bet that it won't be happening again! But to suggest that we don't care about our reputation and making sure that only good dogs are bred is pompous on your part.

You said it yourself, you regret the decision so obviously it was a mistake. Regardless of whether or not you sold the dog or gave him away..........how did you think it would reflect of you as a breeder, passing on to someone else a faulty dog??? It cant be good thats for sure, regardless of any good intentions. I dont claim to know you and Im not claiming you are dishonest or being dishonerable, Im just taking in what you wrote. Let me ask you this.......if this fellow does NOT misrepresent the dog as per his trouble to whomever purchases the dog.......would you still have a legit gripe about it?

Just buy the dog back problem solved.

NorWester read the post.He was going to have the dog put down by the vet.Then...he made the mistake of trusting someone and helping them out. I can relate,I have given dogs away that I wished later I would have just put down except its not so easy for me to do that.JHough has done a good job in clearing his name and should not be associated with the bottom-feeders that trade in inferior and flawed hounds.

DRS wrote:Just buy the dog back problem solved.

Thats what I was thinking. Its $250..........Is your reputation worth $250 to you?????

Best to you all,
Randy

Buckeye Bob wrote:NorWester read the post.He was going to have the dog put down by the vet.Then...he made the mistake of trusting someone and helping them out. I can relate,I have given dogs away that I wished later I would have just put down except its not so easy for me to do that.JHough has done a good job in clearing his name and should not be associated with the bottom-feeders that trade in inferior and flawed hounds.

Buckeye, I have read the post. What he WAS going to do and what he DID are two different things. I didnt read anywhere in Hough's post where he put his "trust" in this other fellow other than an agreement to get the dog fixed. There is no mention of an agreement that the other guy shouldnt or couldnt sell the dog, and as long as this guy doesnt misrepresent the dog as something other than it is, how is what he is doing any different than what Hough did, namely passing on a dog that should have been or should be culled? If Hough was really interested in his rep as a breeder and helping this guy out he would have given him the two dogs the fellow was first interested in, not a cull. That would have MADE his reputation as a very generous man and a breeder with a gesture like that. Don't get me wrong, I understand what happened, hell Ive done similar too........given dogs away that I shouldnt have and had it come back to haunt me in some form or another, and obviously I hadnt thought it thru either or I wouldnt have put myself and the dog in that position, and ultimately my own rep and the dog paid the price. I have to wonder if Hough would have made this thread if the other fellow was giving the dog away as opposed to trying to make a dollar like he is. Once again........after the dog has left your hands, you have given up control and ownership and if you end up unhappy with what happens it all comes back to you, cause if you never passed the dog on in the first place there would never have been a problem.

i dont think it should hurt your reputation if you were honest with this guy. its not like you charged the guy money for the dog. sure you shouldve culled the dog but insted you gave it to a man who wanted a dog and you told him everything about him including health problems. the man who is now selling this dog is the one that should be worried about his reputation. id like to thank you for warning the rest of us about this hound and the man who is selling it.

We were trying to do the man a favor. He said that he had had some success in the past curing things like this. We thought, well if he can do it and will also get him fixed, then maybe he will have a decent running dog since he didn't have the money at the time. We had sold the other two dogs before he even came to our house. We are not dog PEDDLERS. We are not people of great means money-wise either. We have only sold two dogs in the past year and a half. We sold them for a lot less than they were really worth. The people who bought them came to our house and saw them run and bought them. They have been well pleased with them. We don't try to stir up trouble and are peace-loving folks, but sometimes a person can get blind-sided. Then you have to try and do the right thing the best you can. You live and learn (sometimes the hard way). Fool me once, shame on you--fool me twice, shame on me. This will never happen to me again. By the way, the ad is now off of Beagles for Sale Online.

Good post!

I guess first, we shouldn't sell ($150) a dog that has known problems. If the dog was put down as intended, problem solved.

Second, anyone that buys a "running beagle" on the internet for only $250 should be half expecting that something might be wrong with the hound. There are exceptions.


I think alot of people learned from this post and that is what matters most!
LPB

That is the BIG thing hopefully learn from this. NEXT everyone needs to cut him a break he said he made a mistake while trying to be helpful. IMHO ... he was trying to warn people so they will not be taken. I hope none of you people bashing have never made a mistake and owned up and tried to correct it, heaven forbid. JMO
WTG HOUGH,
Paul aka Hunter